• Best of the Net 2023 Nominations

    Autumn Sky Poetry DAILY is delighted to announce the following poems have been nominated for inclusion in 2024’s Best of the Net anthology: Flight Path by Laura RodleyThe Sonnet by Ed HackRailway Station, Bendery, Moldova by Tovli SimiryanBaptism by Greg WatsonMaking Up by Larina WarnockAll the best stories are true by Julia Klatt Singer —read more—

Tree Felling At Lissadell by Maeve McKenna

Tree Felling At Lissadell

A tree can have many uses, I’ve learned. Winter carves its losses,
. . . . . .layer after layer, fluttering heaven-bound on an abrupt
gust. The air is keening, again. I press mute on my phone.

I take the familiar woodland path. To the right, oyster crates settle
. . . . . .on a receding tide, the Lower Rosses a murmur, shrouded in a veil of fog.
The thinning sun surrenders behind the weight of clouds. A twig snaps underfoot.

The tree-hide looks out over Goose Field. Barnacles flock
. . . . . .here for the black months, a lone wintering finch
opens its wings across the cereal patch. I wait.

Inside, the benches are scrawled with names: Tom declares
. . . . . .his love for Amy, another attempts to shape a heart in Tippex. On
the window-ledge, gouged into the wood skin; CP was here, 21.04.2011.

At dusk, skeins glide in from Inismurray, their V ascending
. . . . . .skyward from a curtain of white mist, three thousand
souls roaming the skies. They depart in April, too.

The latch snaps shut. A photograph, crumpled and fading,
. . . . . .is buried pocket-deep; the boy on a makeshift swing,
fists tight around the length of a rope. I play the voice message.

by Maeve McKenna, first published in Boyne Berries

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Editor’s Note: Rich imagery supports and soothes the anxiety of the speaker in this poem, illustrating how our environment can act as a balm even in the midst of grievous, troublesome times.

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